


keep a cool head, a cool heart

by ghostscantdie



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gender-neutral Reader, Magic, Multi, No Smut, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Reader Insert, Reader Is Not Frisk, Reader is a mage, Reader is curious about monsters and monster culture, Reader is the founder of an organization dedicated to learning more about magic, reader has magic, world-building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-02-06 22:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12827649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostscantdie/pseuds/ghostscantdie
Summary: It wasn’t just the fact that the monsters had suddenly become a part of the world that had everyone talking. Strange things had begun happening to humans all over. They suddenly gained powers, abilities, as if the barrier breaking was the key to unlocking them.That isn’t to say they knew how to control them, of course. Or that anyone really knew about these humans at all. But you are one of these humans, and you're determined to figure out your powers and help others do the same.Maybe a monster could teach you about magic? Lucky for you, two skeletons just moved in down the hall...





	1. this is some harry potter type shit

**Author's Note:**

> (spoilers: sans isn't in this chapter. the monsters are only mentioned, as this is just the set-up, but i promise we'll being seeing them real soon c; )

It all started when the barrier broke.

You remember, of course, like it was yesterday. It was, in fact, about three months ago.

After the barrier broke and the monsters who had been trapped behind it for centuries were free, news of this spread like the plague, and everyone who was anyone was talking all about it.

But something strange began to happen.

You first noticed before the news of monsters spread. You had been folding laundry (a boring chore, but that didn’t mean it you didn’t still have to do it), when the shirt you had been holding abruptly caught fire.

After extinguishing the shirt and freaking out for a minute (you just made fire with your HANDS), you submerged them into water to make sure you couldn’t set anything else you owned on fire. Then you scoured the internet for other people who had experienced something similar (while praying that your precious laptop would not also be subjected to the flames).

Unsurprisingly, you found very little, but you kept checking the news every hour or so to see if there was any news of magic (magic? was it magic?).

Then it was announced on the news that the barrier had been broken. And suddenly it all made sense. Sort of.

The monsters had been trapped underground by seven human wizards. Once the barrier had been put up, magic and monsters devolved into nothing more than stories. The world forgot about them and moved on.

But now they were back, and magic (if you could call it that) with it. There had to be a connection.

You decided you would wait and see.

In the meantime, how cool is it that you can make fire with your hands?? (Or rather, how hot is it? Hot enough to burn your favorite shirt to ashes.) But you don’t have any idea how this works. Or if it was you at all.

You need to experiment.

~

Recording is faster than writing. And after what happened previously, you’re not too sure you trust your hands near something flammable for extended periods of time. (Well. Not that your video camera is particularly fire resistant. It’s a necessary risk, you decide.)

That’s how you end up in your bathroom with your video camera set up precariously on the sink and set to record. The bathroom, after all, is mostly tile. Not much to accidentally burn in here.

You press record.

“Okay, um. Flame production through hands, test one. Attempting fire through hand motion and position.”

You hold your hands up in front of you, trying to recreate the same position you were in when you first summoned flames. Nothing happens. No sparks, no smoke, and definitely no flame.

“Well that was a bust,” you mutter. “Well then. Flame production through hands, test two. Attempting fire through vocal command.” And so it continued. You try every possible trigger you can think of, short of simply willing it to happen.

By process of elimination, it seems you have found the trigger of your powers. Of course, willing something to happen is a lot easier said than done. Magic seems to be similar to moving one’s arm; you don’t think about it, it just happens. But while you’ve had years to exercise the muscles in your arms and legs and practice moving them automatically, you’ve never once had an opportunity to exercise magic. This is going to be harder than you thought.

A sudden realization dawns on you. While you may not have, monsters have had their whole lives to practice magic. Even if the exact process is different, the principle should be relatively the same. In any case, monsters probably know more about human magic than humans nowadays, considering they’ve been living with the effects of it for hundreds of years.

A vague feeling of guilt crawls down your back. You shrug it off, however. You now have a direction, a purpose. This is the best you’ve got.

~

The best you’ve got proves to be entirely worthless. For the past three and a half months or so, you’ve been scouring the city for monsters. No such luck. The monsters may be out of the mountains, but they have yet to be released into the streets. It makes sense, you suppose. It’s impossible to integrate an entire species overnight. The government seems to realize this issue has relative urgency however, and so it is being dealt with far more quickly than with their average glacial speed. Soon, a date is set for the first monsters to begin moving into the local human communities. Despite the usual negativity and backlash, most people seem to be rather welcoming to their new neighbors, or at least are better at hiding their feelings on the matter.

In any case, it’s going to take a while until monsters begin to trickle into your area.

But in the meantime, you’ve been spending an awfully large amount of time at the library. Your continued experimentations are relatively fruitless, and bury yourself instead in the studying of ancient witchcraft and magics to see if you can’t find anything that sounds remotely similar to your own. While it is incredibly interesting, the information you uncover isn’t particularly useful.

Your saving grace, in fact, turns out to be your good friend Avery. You had previously decided to keep this “magic” thing (which you could seem to reproduce only sporadically) away from them and avoid mentioning it, but they bring it up with you first. It seems as if you aren’t the only affected by this. They confess to you that a little before the monsters were on the news, they had suddenly begun floating––around the same time, it seems, when you had burned your shirt. Together you come to the conclusion that there were very likely others who had similar experiences, all triggered by the destruction of the barrier.

“I wish there was a way for us to meet up with these other magic-users,” you muse.

Avery is quiet. They stand up suddenly. “Maybe there is.”

~

“The Magically Associated and Talented Humans Research Society?” you look at Avery, bewildered.

“Yup!” They gesture towards the poster they had been previously waving around in your face. “The MATH Research Society for short! Or just MATH RS.” At your silence, they continue, a little indignant. “I thought it sounded cool!!”

“Well, I don’t know about ‘cool,’ but it certainly is clever.” They beam at that. “So what would it be for? What’s the objective?”

“Well, I mean, it’s exactly as the name implies! It’s a society dedicated to the research of human wizards. I mean, before we thought this kind of thing was just fairy tales and make believe! Now suddenly we find out there are monsters?? And we have magic??? How cool is that!! We need to figure out what the connection is!”

You nod along to them, lost in thought. “I’ve been trying to seek out a monster to ask them more about magic, but it’s going to be a while yet until any monsters begin taking up residence around here, so I think for now we’re on our own.”

“And that’s why we create this group! The more of us there are, the easier it will be to figure this stuff out!”

“And the more points of data, the easier it is to discern a pattern. Alright, I’m in. Let’s become the leaders of a secret underground wizard cult.”

Their grin doesn’t waver. “It’s not a cult!” they say, and raise their hand up for a high-five.

You smirk, and tap their hand lightly with your own. “Whatever you say.”

“Come on, put more passion into it! Hold up your hand!!”

You oblige, and they slap their hand into yours, making you cringe at the sheer force.

“That’s how you high-five!! Now let’s gooooooo!!!” They do a dramatic pose.

“....what are you pointing at?”

“The future!!”

...This may require more effort on your part than you anticipated.


	2. almost 2 years later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i.. kinda forgot i posted this... oops? sans isn't the only bonehead, i guess.
> 
> this chapter still doesn't really have any monsters (or sans) in it yet, but i want the reader to feel like they have their own life before they meet everyone else. plus, gotta get through all that magical exposition, y'know?
> 
> hope you enjoy anyways. :p

You woke up how you almost always do: to the blaring sound of an alarm clock screaming. You open your eyes, and it hurts, and you close them again as you fumble around on your desk for the source of the sound making your head spin. You find a button and there’s an alarmingly loud staticky noise before music crackles to life “—A BEAUTIFUL NEW DAY, HEY-HEY—” and joins the chorus. You jump, the unexpected noise enough to jolt you awake.

Wrong button. Nothing like being scared out of your wits first thing in the morning to get the blood pumping.

You blink and rub the sleep from your eyes, turning off the alarm and turning down the music “—IN THE CITy, on the streets where once—” Time to get to work, you suppose.

~

The sun is only just coming up when you leave your apartment, the door locking with a satisfying ‘click’ behind you. You look out over the parking lot and spot a moving truck. Maybe you’re getting a new neighbor? There’s an apartment a couple doors down from you that, as far as you know, has never been lived in for as long as you’ve lived here. Maybe the person was just a hermit or something.

Whatever. The elevator’s busted, to your irritation, so you take the stairs down to the parking lot below. You get in your car. You drive to work. You work. You’d say your life was boringly average if it weren’t for the fact that you could do things like produce fire from nothing simply by willing it to happen.

You work at a large computer company that supplies software to a lot of very important people, and even some not so important people. Your division deals with the software of the company you were originally a part of. A small company with a lot of potential, ITSC snatched OriginElectric up quickly. But the transition from a small-scale company with a few dedicated employees to a whole team of software engineers was difficult, and even though you were only a few years out of college, you ended up as team lead, in charge of teaching the new employees how to solve customers’ problems with the software and fix any problems yourself that they couldn’t manage.

Frustrating, stressful work.

You should really start looking for a new job. At least the pay is nice.

You get to the office around 6 o’clock in the morning and decide you’re done for the day around 4:30. If you hurry, maybe you’ll be able to beat the traffic.

“Bec, I’m heading out!” You call to your officemate. She waves at you in a distracted manner, muttering under her breath about something.

“Good!” Troy, who is leaning in the doorway to your office, manilla folder in hand. “You work too much. Give the rest of a chance, huh?”

“I’ll give you a chance when you can get the work done without calling me for backup. Speaking of, don’t. If you call tonight I won’t answer. Whatever the issue is it can wait until tomorrow.”

“Book club?” Bec asks, eyes peeling away from her screen to look in your direction.

“Yeah…” You chuckle awkwardly. “Strict, ‘no phones allowed rule’ so we can focus on just books.”

“Well, have fun,” Bec mumbles, already reabsorbed in her work.

“Yup. See you guys,” you say, slinging your computer bag over one shoulder and your backpack over the other.

“Bye!” Troy says, backing out of the doorway and continuing down the hall. Bec grunts, but says nothing else.

~

You do, in fact, manage to beat most of the traffic, and it only takes you about thirty minutes to get home rather than the forty-five to an hour.

You huff up the stairs (you asked, the repairman for the elevator won’t be in until tomorrow), and when you finally make it to your apartment, you sling your backpack across the room, carefully place your laptop bag on your desk, and flop unceremoniously onto your bed with a deep sigh. You close your eyes for just a minute…

...and wake up some time later, bleary-eyed and confused. Your clock reads “5:32.”

….5:32?

“SHIT!! I’M GONNA BE LATE FOR WORK!!”

You tear out of the room in a blind panic before slowing down and thinking it over. You check your phone. 5:32….pm.

Oh.

You breathe a sigh of release before realizing.

“SHIT! I’m gonna be late for MATHRS!!”

~

The air tastes stale here. It’s dark and cold, and altogether unpleasant, but beggars can’t be choosers and secret underground wizard cults need a discreet base somewhere. You found this place for cheap (especially given the size), and the landlord doesn’t ask questions as long as you pay the rent on time. You and Avery were working on it. MATHRS (which Avery claimed was pronounced “math-ers”) had only been around for––actually, it was almost two years now. Time flies, you guess.

Even if it had been around for two years, these things take time, and these things take even longer when you are attempting to operate in secret. While your little wizard cult has certainly grown––you had gone from two people to thirty-three official members––the public’s opinion of wizards has only declined, and so MATHRS mostly kept to itself, focused on the main goal of controlling the powers thrust upon you.

While you kept meticulous notes that ended up filling notebooks upon notebooks (which you of course scanned in and backed up on your computer, come on, you weren’t an animal) what you all had learned so far boiled down to this: human magic was directly connected, unsurprisingly, to the human soul. As this phenomena emerged from the underground with the monsters, the information you had was limited at best. You understood that souls were representative of your entire being, and could be damaged in ways that did not affect you physically. Each soul had a dominant trait, of which there were seven: patience, bravery, integrity, kindness, justice, perseverance, and determination.

Traits likely had the most effect on what magic each individual was best at, but since you had no way of knowing what trait your souls possessed, much of your research had more to do with the “how to control the powers you already possess,” rather than “why these powers exist and how they work” Of course, this research would be easier if any of you were able to get a good look at your souls. This is why you needed to find a monster. They could teach you how to gain access to your soul, or perhaps simply tell you the dominant traits each of you possessed.

You glance at your phone. 5:48. Seems like you’re the first one here.

You fumble around for a minute before finding the light switch and flicking it on. The light comes on with a flicker, and you begin setting up for the meeting, which basically means shoving furniture out of the way in favor of thirty or so chairs, all facing a whiteboard on one side of main room.

People begin to trickle in a few minutes later, greeting you and either going further back into the (what do you even call this place? a laboratory?) laboratory to work on their personal projects or helping you to set up the rest of the chairs. You finish by 5:57, three minutes before the meeting starts, which is when Avery comes bursting in, slamming the door open so hard you’re surprised they haven’t put a crack in the concrete wall.

They call your name.

“C’mere!!” they say with a goofy grin. “Have you looked at today’s news?? They’re starting to let monsters move into cities that aren’t, y’know, immediately in the surrounding areas of the mountains they came out of!” They flash their phone screen in your direction, but they’re so jittery with excitement you’re having trouble seeing what exactly it is they’re trying to show you.

“Hold still,” you say, grabbing their hand so you can read the screen.

‘THE MONSTER RELOCATION INITIATIVE: ARE YOU GOING TO START SEEING MONSTERS IN YOUR CITY?’

“Our city is supposed to start having monsters from the Ebott barrier moving in within the week!” they say, taking back their arm.

“Isn’t that where the king and queen lived..?” you muse.

While the monsters of Ebott had been the first to make contact and apparently shatter the barrier, it turns out that there were in fact multiple underground prisons scattered around the continent, all sealed by a network of spells based in Ebott. When the barrier there was shattered, the spells became unstable and barriers were destroyed all over.

The result was a large influx of monsters the world didn’t know what to do with.

“Yeah!” Avery says, still grinning wide. They gasp. “You don’t think we’d maybe get to meet them, do you?? Wouldn’t that be something! Meeting real royalty!!” They swoon. “Especially  _ monster _ royalty! I’d love to learn more about the intricacies of their society, and why they have a monarchy instead of a democracy like most of the world!”

“I would try not to put too much stock in titles. I’m sure they get enough fawning over, so if you  _ do _ ever happen to meet them—which is unlikely!” You pause and look sternly at them, and the excitement that had been growing on their face falls into a pout. You sigh. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up. If you do meet them, though, try to just treat them as normal people, okay? Same goes with all monsters. You have a better chance of befriending them that way.” You nudge them lightly, a consoling smile on your face.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. They’re monsters, and they’re royalty, but those aren’t their defining traits. They’re still people!! First and foremost!!” They shout that last bit and punch their fist in the air, striking a heroic pose. No one else in the room pays much attention, as most of them are used to Avery’s antics.

“That’s the spirit,” you say, chuckling. “Let’s start the meeting now, yeah?”

They nod. “After you, chief!”

~

The meeting is fairly cut and dry. Updates on personal projects and research (some updates on personal lives…), goal-setting for the next two weeks, and reviewing accomplishments and successes since the last meeting. The latter portion of the meeting was at Avery’s insistent, as they maintain that without clear goals and clear achievements, the MATHRS members will lose focus and motivation. Avery might be a bit excitable, and a bit of an airhead, but they have a deep understanding of people; a sort of wisdom you both admire and envy.

As people begin to funnel out you find yourself releasing the breath you hadn’t known you’d been holding. Even after all this time, in front of people you knew and trusted, talking in front of a crowd really wasn’t your thing. You’d gladly to leave it all to Avery, but if you did that the meetings would never actually get to the point. They never ran out of things to say, it seemed.

You begin moving the furniture that had been pushed to the sides of the room back in place. There are less people to help you, now, as most of them have gone home to their families (it  _ is _ starting to get late…) and others are engaged in conversations or research. You don’t mind much, though, as this menial and fairly repetitive task occupies your hands as your mind wanders.

Monsters… Would any of them willingly help a mage? After what was done to them, you really wouldn’t blame them for hoping magic in humans has died out. From what little records you’ve been able to obtain, however (and from your own experience, of course), it seems that magic in humans had vanished with the monsters. As a sort of karmic punishment for sealing them away, perhaps, mages lost their powers. This lined up with the timing of when you gained yours, as well as the accounts of the other members of MATHRS. Everyone had a flare-up of magic of some sort around the time when the barrier broke, but had trouble reproducing it, as more powerful magic seemed to flare up almost randomly, or only in times of extreme duress or emotion.

You sigh to yourself. Of course, magic becomes real and the strongest forms of it are based on  _ feelings _ and  _ souls _ . What’s next, the power of friendship? Soulmates?

...no, those things probably exist too, don’t they?

You come out of your stupor when you realize there is nothing left to clean up, and you turn towards Avery, who is waving off some stragglers, who had stayed behind to chat a bit.

“...You could have, helped, you know,” you grumble, but there’s no real harshness in your words.

“I would have! You just got it all done before I was finished talking with Riley and TJ. They were asking about telekinesis.”

“Hm. Well, hopefully they figure it out. That is one of the more useful types of magic, I think. And more discreet.”

Avery hums in agreement, and you both go quiet for a minute. The silence is broken when you hear what sounds like a small explosion in the back room, a yelp, and then a thud. You jump, before glancing at Avery, wide-eyed, who snorts and begins laughing hysterically. You grin and roll your eyes before heading to the back to make sure nothing important was set on fire… again.

“Everything good back here?” you call before stepping into the dark room. There’s a crunch as you put your foot down and upon closer inspection it appears to be glass. That explains the darkness.

“Blew another lightbulb?”

A shaky voice calls out from the dark. “...yeah.”

You sigh, and carefully summon a small flame in your hand. The light pushes back the dark and you feel a bit braver now that you can walk around without running into anything or stabbing yourself on broken glass. The fire illuminates the face of Judith, who is looking meekly at the glass shards littering the floor. Only 18 years old, Judith is the youngest and most recent member of the organization.

“Are you hurt?” you ask, moving towards her, examining her face and arms for cuts.

“No, I’m… I’m fine. I know enough magic to be able to deflect the glass, at least.” She lets out a warbly laugh, and it’s clear she’s still a bit shaken up, even if this isn’t the first time this has happened.

“Come on, let’s get out of the dark,” you say, and you lead her out of the room, dispersing the flame as soon as you step out of the dark.

Avery has gotten control of themselves when you come back, and their lackadaisical grin turns into a worried frown as soon as their eyes land on Judith’s face. They cluck their tongue and move towards her, checking her over for injuries as you had done.

“Are you okay? Did you get any cuts? What’s wrong, Judith? You can talk to me, hun.” They envelope her in a hug when they deem her uninjured, and Judith begins to cry.

You decide you’ll leave this to Avery.

“I’m just… just… never going to… to get it!” she manages to choke out between sobs.

You hear Avery shushing Judith and whispering reassurances as you move down the hallway to the closet. You pull out the broom and dustpan and the box of lightbulbs and move to the back room Judith was in, muffling your footsteps with your magic so that you move silently.

When you have finished changing the bulb and sweeping up the glass, the sounds of crying have stopped. You poke your head out into the hallway and catch a glimpse of Judith waving goodbye to Avery before slipping out the door.

“...She okay?” You eventually ask.

Avery sighs. “Yeah. Poor girl just has so much trouble with energy magic. She does so well with almost all of the other types, I think it’s frustrating her that she’s been struggling so much with it.”

“She’ll get it eventually. They always do.”

Avery, for once, doesn’t appear to have anything to say.

“...I’m gonna head out,” you say, finally. “I’ll text you?”

Avery still has a far-off look on their face, and you’re not sure they heard you until they speak. “Yeah… yeah, see you.”

“And hey, let me know if you meet any ‘monster royalty,’” you say with a grin, nudging Avery with your elbow.

They finally look at you and smile. “Hey, if I met any monsters, you’d be the first to know. I need someone as nerdy as me to geek out with.”

“Seeya.” You wave goodbye and step into the cool night air.

You hear Avery call out behind you, “Catch ya later, alligator!”

“In a while, crocodile,” you call back, before the closing the door shut behind you.

The sun has set by now. You take a deep breath and look at the sky, absently wishing you had a better view of the stars, not for the first time. Maybe one day, you and Avery could drive out to a desert somewhere. Finally get to see in real life what you saw in those pictures.

One day.

~

As you enter your apartment building, you say a quiet ‘hello’ to the woman at the front desk, who nods back at you in acknowledgement, and start making your way to the elevator before remembering it’s still broken. Groaning, you resign yourself to climbing the stairs. You’re breathing fairly heavily after only the first flight, and it isn’t until you’re halfway up the second you realize you’re not the only one on the stairwell as another person’s labored breathing joins your own. It’s on the third floor you find the source of the noise.

A monster.

A skeleton monster.

A skeleton monster, who is wearing a blue hoodie and gym shorts and is leaning over a heavy-looking cardboard box, sweating profusely.

A skeleton monster, who looks up at you, winks in a manner far too nonchalant for someone who looks and sounds like they’re dying, and says, “don’t mind me, i’m just…  **bone** -tired from moving all these boxes.  **distal** only be here for a minute while i catch my breath.”

You stare.

Their face keeps a practiced, easy-going smile, but their eyes(?) shift around the stairwell uncomfortably. The silence stretches on as you continue to stare blankly at them, still processing. You should probably say something.

“Uh. You’re, uh—you’re a skeleton.”

Master of eloquence, you are not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brownie points to whoever is able to figure out what the song in the beginning is :p
> 
> if you want to come bother me about updates or just want to say hi, my tumblr is ghostscantdie.tumblr.com


	3. the brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i rewrote this thing like 10 times and i'm still not really satisfied with it. papyrus is hard to write dialogue for. =3=

You let out a startled gasp and cover your mouth, embarrassed.

"Oh my god. I am so, so, sorry. That was really rude of me."

The skeleton looks at you, still grinning but perplexed. "eh, it's okay, i got thick skin." They wink.

"How are you… doing that?" The skeleton’s voice is strange in a way that you can only really describe as “lowercase,” something that should be by all means physically impossible.

"doing what?"

"The thing with your--you know what! It doesn’t matter. Never mind. Sorry," you say, and your face burns, but you push through the embarrassment and continue, "Do you--do you want some help with those boxes?" You gesture towards the boxes they had been leaning against.

They look kinda surprised you offered to help. "uhh, sure. that'd be great, actually. here, you can take the lighter one," they say, handing you the top box.

"No, please, let me carry the heavy box, I have to do  _ something _ to make up for that terrible first impression," you say, hefting the larger box into your arms and almost immediately buckling at the knees. "Oh wow, you weren't kidding," you say, laughing nervously. But you refuse to embarrass yourself further in front of the skeleton, and so you continue to carry the box, praying you make it up the stairs before your arms give out. "Lead the way."

They pick up their own, presumably lighter box with a grin and a raised eyebrow (eyebone? browbone??), as if they know how much you're struggling with the box. Their eyes (eyelights? the glowing dots where their eyes would be if they were human) glow blue. Were they always blue? ...You must be imagining things.

"name's sans, by the way. sans the skeleton."

"What was that? James Bond?" you joke. You haven't seen any James Bond movies.

"no, it's sans." Certainly cheeky for a monster made of bone.

You introduce yourself.

"Do you have a last name?" you ask, curious.

"monsters don't, usually, 'less they're part of one of the older families. there weren't really enough monsters to get anyone confused with anyone else. only ever one sans the skeleton in the underground."

"Yeah, I guess it would be different than it is with humans; with so many you have to have some way to keep track of them all.”

“we did have to choose one once we got aboveground, though.” They’re wearing that cheeky grin again, and you have a feeling you know what sort of last name they picked.

“Oh? Don’t keep me in suspense, what did you choose? It has to be good with the way you’re grinning.”

“serif. sans serif.”

Of course, you think.

“Of course,” you say out loud.

The conversation peeters out as you begin to scale the the stairs, as you focus on  _ not _ dropping this very heavy box on your feet and possibly breaking your new friend’s possessions in the process. Just as you’re sure your arms are about to give out, the skeleton suddenly stops.

“welp, this one’s mine,” they say, and fish out the keys to their apartment and open the door.

You all but drop your box onto the ground. “Oh thank the stars,” you say with a gasp.

The apartment layout is pretty much exactly like your own, and the apartment is empty except for a tall pile of boxes. “Where do you want this?” you ask, gesturing towards the box on the floor.

“right there is fine,” they says, placing his own box on top of yours. He turns towards the pile of boxes in the middle of the room. “wanna meet my bro?”

“Oh, you have a brother? Sure!”

“hey, papyrus!” he calls out lazily towards the pile of boxes.

You’re confused until out from behind the boxes comes another, much taller skeleton.

“BROTHER? IS THAT YOU?” If Sans sounded like they (well, he, you suppose, if he was this skeleton’s brother) spoke in lowercase, his brother was the opposite, speaking in a way that you could only really describe as uppercase. It wasn’t that he was loud--he was, but it was more that his voice was filled with a sort of self-assurance and confidence you could only dream of achieving.

“SANS, DID YOU FIND THE BOX WITH THE--” The taller skeleton cuts himself off as he gasps loudly when he rests his eyes (eyesockets? He doesn’t have little lights in his eyes like Sans…) on you.

“OH! I WASN’T EXPECTING COMPANY SO SOON. I’M AFRAID OUR APARTMENT ISN’T REALLY IN THE PROPER STATE TO BE HOSPITABLE CURRENTLY. ARE YOU ONE OF THE NEIGHBORS?”

“Oh! No, I was just helping Sans out with some boxes. But yeah, I actually live just a couple doors down the hall.” You introduce yourself. “If you guys need any help or have any questions, feel free to stop by!” Maybe you could make some cookies or something as a housewarming (apartment-warming?) gift. They probably already felt out of place as the only monsters in the complex (as far as you knew), so it wouldn’t hurt to be extra friendly.

“THAT’S AWFULLY NICE OF YOU, HUMAN! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BUT MY FRIENDS JUST CALL ME PAPYRUS. PERHAPS LATER, WHEN WE ARE MORE UNPACKED, YOU CAN COME OVER FOR DINNER, SO WE CAN MAKE UP FOR OUR POOR HOSPITALITY DURING YOUR FIRST VISIT.”

“Oh, no, please, it’s my pleasure, Papyrus! And really, I should be apologizing to you, barging in on you like this!” You had initially assumed this would be like most polite conversation, where the skeletons would accept your friendly offer of help but never actually take you up on it, and you would take your leave and never really talk extensively to them ever again, outside of occasional small talk when you passed each other in the hall, but Papyrus, apparently, had other plans.

“WOWIE! YOU CALLED ME PAPYRUS!! DOES THAT MEAN WE ARE FRIENDS ALREADY? THEN YOU SHOULD COME OVER FOR A CELEBRATORY FRIENDSHIP DINNER!! IT WILL BE SPAGHETTI, AS PER TRADITION.”

“O-oh?” At this point you were more than a little confused. With Papyrus folding the strict social script you had memorized into a complicated crane origami, you were left floundering without much to say besides the occasional nod and noise of confirmation. Sans snickers quietly beside you, apparently having picked up on your confusion and content to let Papyrus take the lead in the conversation.

Papyrus pulls out his phone. “HERE, HUMAN! IT SHALL BE EASIER TO ORGANIZE OUR FRIENDSHIP DINNER IF WE EXCHANGE PHONE NUMBERS!” He holds out his phone and an empty hand expectantly.

You stare at his hands blankly. His face begins to fall and his hands begin to retract, mistaking your silence for rejection, when you realize what he is asking for.

“Oh! Sure!” You fumble with your phone and hand it to him, taking his phone and entering your phone number and name with your apartment number in parentheses before handing it back to him. He hands you your phone back and you have two new contacts: “THE GREAT PAPYRUS,” and “SANS.”

“IF YOU DON’T MIND, FRIEND, I HAVE TAKEN THE LIBERTY OF ALSO ADDING SANS’ PHONE NUMBER INTO YOUR PHONE. WITH YOUR PERMISSION, I WILL SHARE YOUR NUMBER WITH HIM AS WELL.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just send him a message so he has my number.”

|You: Hello! This is your new neighbor! :-)

|SANS: cool

You frown, and make a quick edit.

|You: Hello! This is your new neighbor! :-)

|comic sans: cool

That’s better.

“Alright, well I’ll leave you guys to it. Like I said, just let me know if you have any questions or need any help, I’d be more than happy to assist!” You say, waving goodbye as you take your leave.

“HAVE A GOOD DAY, HUMAN!”

“seeya.”

…

As soon as you’re back in your own apartment, you crumple onto your bed and let out the breath you suppose had gotten stuck in your lungs the moment Sans had opened his mouth. Were all monsters so eccentric, or had you simply gotten lucky?


	4. the transitional chapter in which the plot moves forward primarily through texting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this ones kind of short, but it felt weird to include the dinner in a mostly transitional chapter so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

*PING!*

You wake up to the sound of your phone going off. Blearily you check the name, and seeing that it was only Avery, you click the phone off and decide they can wait a few more minutes.

*PING!*

*PING!*

*PING!*

You groan. It was early in the morning on your day off, and you were hoping to take advantage of that by sleeping as much as possible. Why did Avery have to be such an early-bird? And insist on sending multiple texts instead of just one long one.

*PING!*

*PING!*

*PING!* 

You unlock your phone to see what their fuss is about.

 

|aVERY good friend: DUDE

|aVERY good friend: DUDE DUDE DUDE DUDE

|aVERY good friend: THESE TWO MONSTERS JUST MOVED IN NEXT DOOR TO ME AND JEAN

|aVERY good friend: WHAT DO I DO

|aVERY good friend: I WANT TO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION BUT I DONT WANT TO BE TOO OVERBEARING OR MAKE THEM FEEL OUT OF PLACE

|aVERY good friend: DO I NEED TO GET THEM SOMETHING?? WHAT DO YOU DO TO WELCOME A NEW NEIGHBOR????

|aVERY good friend: HELP

 

Ah.

Avery was… a lot, but at least they were aware of it. Before they met Jean you were about 80% of their impulse control. Now you’re about 40%.

 

|You: What a coincidence. I just had a pair of monsters move in down the hall from me. Guess they’ve decided to spread them out? Though there could be other monsters in the building. Birds of a feather tend to prefer to flock together.

|aVERY good friend: yeah that is kind of weird?? i mean we don’t live that far apart but.

|aVERY good friend: still.

|aVERY good friend: it might be better to move monsters in clumps so they don’t get thrown into something too unfamiliar right away

|aVERY good friend: idk i juwt want them to feel welcomed

|aVERY good friend: *just

|aVERY good friend: sorry i’m pacinh

|aVERY good friend: *pacing

|You: Relax!! Just treat them how you would treat anyone who just moved in and doesn’t really know their way around the neighborhood yet!!!

|aVERY good friend: you mean introduce myself and have some awkward small talk and then never interact with them again outside of saying hello?

|You: You would think, wouldn’t you?

|aVERY good friend: what does that mean

|You: The monsters I mentioned. They moved in yesterday and I helped one of them carry some stuff to their apartment. His brother is… enthusiastic about making new friends, for lack of a better term.

|aVERY good friend: pfft, who wouldnt want to be friends with u?

|aVERY good friend: if you ask me, that monster has great taste ;)

|You: Oh, speaking of taste, he also insisted I come over for dinner for “traditional friendship spaghetti”

|You: Don’t get me wrong, I love pasta and he was really sweet about it but I think I might be out of my depth here.

|aVERY good friend: wait!!!! traditional friendship spaghetti?? we’ve never partook!! does this mean we aren’t really friends??? :’(

|aVERY good friend: partaken? partook? partooken???

|aVERY good friend: whatever

|You: I think both partaken and partook are both words but in this case partaken sounds better imo

|You: Honestly I just don’t want to accidentally insult them or something. Since I don’t really know what a “traditional friendship spaghetti dinner” consists of.

|aVERY good friend: presumably, spaghetti

|You: =-=

|You: Well, in any case, I’m planning on bringing my neighbors some cookies. You could try baking something, perhaps. Or take a page out of the skeleton’s book and invite them for dinner.

|You: I would avoid friendship spaghetti for now, though. I’ll let you know what that actually means once I figure it out.

|aVERY good friend: lol ok

|aVERY good friend: thanks for listening to my mini freakout

|aVERY good friend: sorry for waking you up on your day off

|aVERY good friend: but in my defense you 100% would’ve just stayed in bed all day without my intervention

|You: Most likely, but you are not forgiven.

|aVERY good friend: D:

|You: Nobody disturbs my sleep and gets away with it

|You: Speaking of, your intervention was all for naught, because I am going back to sleep right now.

 

And you do manage to fall asleep for another hour or two before being woken up yet again by another bombardment of texts.

*PING!*

*PING!*

*PING!*

*PING!*

This time, it looks like it’s Papyrus blowing up your phone. At least he had the decency to wait until later in the morning.

 

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: HELLO, NEW NEIGHBOR!

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: THIS IS PAPYRUS!

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: I AM MESSAGING YOU TO ORGANIZE A DATE FOR DINNER!

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: IF YOU ARE NOT BUSY, AND IT IS NOT TOO SHORT NOTICE, WE COULD HAVE THE DINNER TONIGHT!

 

Oh my stars, he texts exactly how he talks.

|You: Actually, you happened to catch me on my day off! What time should I plan on coming over? Should I bring anything? I’m afraid I’m a little unfamiliar with the tradition of friendship spaghetti.

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: GASP!

 

...He actually typed out “gasp.”

 

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: THIS MUSTN’T DO!

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: NO NEED TO BRING ANYTHING, FRIEND, EXCEPT YOURSELF AND YOUR HUNGER!

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: I AM GLAD I WILL BE THE ONE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO THE AMAZING FRIENDSHIP POWER THAT IS MAKING AND EATING SPAGHETTI TOGETHER!!

|THE GREAT PAPYRUS: WOULD 5:30PM BE OKAY?

 

Okay, now you understand. The “friendship” part of the spaghetti dinner comes from bonding over making the food and then eating it together. Different from what you were used to, but you could roll with that.

 

|You: Sure! See you then!

 

Despite what Papyrus said, you decided the least you could do was make cookies to welcome them to neighborhood.

You heave yourself out of bed and get ready to get your bake on. But a thought occurs to you, and you send a quick message to Sans.

 

|You: Out of curiosity, and for no other reason, do you and Papyrus have any allergies?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if the text messages are difficult to distinguish from the reader's thoughts/narration or if papyrus seems too out of character! i honestly have no idea what i'm doing so feedback is appreciated lol


End file.
